Making sense (and, sometimes, nonsense) out of Current News, Issues, Politics

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Green Versus Green Over Windmills That Kill

Now, as the open landscapes of America are being populated with wind turbines, we are starting to see some very unintended circumstances. Specifically, the virtual killing of many species of birds and bats by those supposed green machines.

In Pennsylvania, alone, it has been reported by researchers who have taken samples of dead bats around wind turbines that as many as 10,000 pest-killing bats were killed by wind turbines in just the last year. Other studies indicate the "protected" American Golden Eagle and even the rarer American Bald Eagle were succumbing to the hacking blades of these green energy devices. Of course, millions of other birds that are of less environmental importance are also being killed by the blades of those turbines.

As a result of all this mayhem, we are now seeing environmentalists going toe to toe with each other, in our courts, over the creation and expansion of certain wind farms; especially in areas with fragile bird populations. Additionally, there are environmental studies being conducted to analyze the impact on non-avian wildlife from the substantial ground vibration and low-frequency noise being produce by the blade and turbine rotation.

To me, this is just a repeat of a decades old controversy that has hung over our nation's dams (our first green energy producers) and how those dams have severely harmed the spawning habits of various fish; such as trout and salmon. Today, we have less dams than we did 100 years ago because environmentalists have successfully been able to get them removed by using our nation's court system.

The wind turbine issue is a real dilemma for the environmentalists. On the one hand, you have many environmentalists who believe these "green machines" are the future of energy in this country; saving the planet from millions of tons of greenhouse, carbon emissions. But, on the other hand, many other environmentalists are now seeing these devices as killing machines that could literally wipe out many of the fragile species they have spent years trying to protect.

So, I guess you could say we have a real life, "Green Paradox" (of sorts) being set before us. It will be interesting to see who ultimately survives in the resolve of that paradox: the birds and the bats or the wind turbines. Based on the history of environmentalism in this country, it has always been the creatures who win in our courts. Take, for example, how a tiny lizard. the dunes sagebrush lizard, is now threatening to thwart all dunes-related oil production activities in West Texas. So, my money is on birds and bats and not on those samurai bladed wind machines. We'll just have to see.